This includes protection against discrimination on the grounds of race, gender reassignment, age, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation:

Note: Only a tribunal can determine whether you took reasonable steps to resolve the dispute.

You may decide to 'lock out' your employees for taking industrial action. Locking them out means you prevent them from accessing their usual workplace.

As a rule you can achieve a lock-out by locking the doors. But, you cannot include any days of the lock-out into the calculation of the 12-week protected period.

Dismissing Staff with a Disability

What happens if a disabled employee is unable to do their job? There are occasions where it may be fair for you to dismiss staff with a disability or illness. In most cases you would need to show that no reasonable adjustments can take place to keep them employed.

Political Beliefs and Political Groups

Generally, it is not automatically unfair to dismiss staff because of their political beliefs. The same also applies if they belong with a political group. But, in some cases a tribunal might rule it as an unfair dismissal.

Note: The rules changed on dismissals due to political opinions or affiliation as of 25 June 2013. Since then, there is no qualifying period for someone going to an employment tribunal.

Unfair Dismissal Penalties

There are penalties for employers who dismiss staff unfairly. If proven, a tribunal might order you to:

Reinstate the employee and give them back their same job.

Re-engage the employee which usually means giving them a different job.

In some cases, the tribunal may order you to pay compensation. As a rule the amount of compensation depends on the employee's:

Age

Gross weekly pay

Length of service

Failing to follow a tribunal order to reinstate someone often means paying extra compensation. But, there is an upper limit on the amount a tribunal can award for unfair dismissal. The exceptions would be cases relating to health and safety or whistleblowing.

Employees taking part in unofficial industrial action (unless the dismissal is for an automatically unfair reason).

Police staff (unless it relates to health and safety or whistleblowing).

Workers on a fishing vessel who get paid by a share in the profits or gross earnings of the vessel.

Tribunals for unfair dismissals determine the facts known to the employer at the time of dismissing the employee. They also find out whether their response was reasonable. As a rule, compensation gets awarded for an unfair dismissal and made with two components.

Basic Payment Award

Basic award for an unfair dismissal gets calculated as a payment of the number of years worked. It is then multiplied by the claimant's weekly pay according to their age. This process works like statutory redundancy payments.

The final figure is often adjusted with an extra compensation award. This helps to meet any incurring financial losses by the claimant.

Maximum Payment Award

UK employment laws govern maximum compensation awards. The upper payment award and current statutory limit is £78,335 or one year's pay, whichever is the lowest figure.

A Tribunal can order the reinstatement of your working position with your employer. Further upward adjustments of compensation may be due for non-compliance by your employer.